Zach Elmore, a senior at Middlebury College and 2004 graduate of Lawrence High School, starts work Monday as an intern at the Bank of China in Hangzhou, a city of 6.5 million people west of Shanghai. Elmore's mother took this photo during spring break outside the bank's signature building in Hong Kong.

When Zach Elmore walks into his new bank Monday morning, he’ll start a summer internship that promises to offer lessons in world finance, business customs and large-scale development that don’t come along all that often.

Try never before.

Elmore, a 2004 graduate of Lawrence High School and current senior at Middlebury College, will become the first American student to work for the Bank of China in Hangzhou, a city of 6.5 million people west of Shanghai.

It’s a posting that Elmore still can’t believe he secured, giving him training with the bank’s top executive in the city and perhaps the province – and certain to give him insights that could lead to a career in finance involving the world’s fastest-growing economy.

“American banks are very well-established, with a long tradition, but Chinese banks – and especially this new Chinese banking system – is changing every day,” said Elmore, who is majoring in Chinese and political science. “As part of joining the WTO they’ve redone a lot of regulations, so it’s just amazing the changes that I’ll be able to see.”

The internship follows a semester of studying abroad, when he immersed himself in Chinese language and culture while attending Zhejiang University of Technology. He acknowledges that it’s been quite a shift from living in Lawrence, where his parents – John, who heads community bank operations for US Bank, and Rosy Elmore – still live.

Now Zach Elmore can speak Mandarin, write Chinese characters and even answers to Meng Zewei, a name given to him by a professor. The corresponding characters are included on his business card, part of business etiquette that carries a language all its own.

“They’re a lot more formal when they talk to each other, at least when they first meet,” he said of his business colleagues. “When you hand out your business card, you do it with two hands. They’re just very polite.”

Elmore said he’d already learned plenty about living in China. There’s the 20 pounds he lost on a diet that essentially consists of fried rice and Coca-Cola. And that it takes 15 minutes to check out at Wal-Mart, because of the hundreds, if not thousands, of people inside. Or that satellite TV is the preferred entertainment medium because it can show foreign programs, unlike state-controlled cable.

Most of all: He considers himself lucky.

“A lot of people have an opportunity to work in a factory, or see one little thing about how China’s growing, or how countries grow,” he said. “But the Chinese banking system is what’s behind a lot of it, so I’ll get to see all the aspects of their amazing growth.”